Alistair Hall is an award-winning graphic designer based in London. He set up his design studio, We Made This, in 2004, and specialises in thoughtful, simple, beautiful design. He has made work with clients including Penguin Books, Historic Royal Palaces, the National Trust and John Lewis.
Alistair is a co-founder of the children’s writing and mentoring centre, Ministry of Stories; as well as Art Director of the fantastical shop that it’s hidden within, Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.
He has written about design and visual culture on the We Made This blog for over ten years, and his first book, London Street Signs, was published by Batsford this September.
Alistair also lectures at Central Saint Martins and The School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University; and has given talks about his practice across the UK and overseas.
Projects
- Penguin Random House Learning JournalPenguin Random House asked me to put together a handbook for all their UK staff. It needed to combine two separate but connected halves: a learning journal full of information about their courses and training, which collectively formed the Penguin Random House Academy; and a travel journal, in which the employees could ‘reflect, collect notes, write down ideas and plan their next steps’. It needed to be exciting and motivational, inspiring and functional. I was also asked to create an identity f
- Hello - Jeremy Tankard mailerJeremy Tankard Typography, a type design studio in Cambridge, has been producing award-winning typefaces since 1998. Having worked on the sample book for Jeremy’s brilliant De Worde typeface, he came to me after complete redesign of his website, and asked me to create some promotional materials for the site’s launch. I created an insert for Creative Review magazine, as well as a series of adverts to go in other magazines. For the Creative Review insert, I realised that the foundry’s 16 core typ
- Hoxton Street Monster SuppliesHoxton Street Monster Supplies was established in 1818, and ever since then has served the daily needs of London’s extensive monster community. Step inside, and you’ll find a whole range of essential products for monsters: you can pick from a variety of Tinned Fears (distinctly helpful if you’re not quite as scary as you once were), a selection of Human Preserves, and a mix of other really rather fine goods, including Neck Bolt Tighteners, and Death Certificates (to prove you really are dead).
- Hawkland type specimenHawkland is a beautiful, elegant new typeface from Jeremy Tankard Typography. It’s based on a typestyle that appeared in the second half of the 18th century, which later became known as Transitional. It’s a typeface of two families – one designed for use at text sizes, the other, with a slightly higher contrast of stroke widths, for use at display sizes. Overall there are 28 weights, making Hawkland a truly versatile typeface. Jeremy asked me to design a specimen for the typeface, and he had s
Projects credited in
- D&AD Award-winning Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Postal ServiceIn caves and cupboards the world over, there are monsters – monsters who are curious about humans and would love to hear from them. Meanwhile, there are many young people who’d love to write to them. So we helped the Ministry of Stories launch the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Postal Service. For a small fee, humans of all ages can write to a monster and receive a personal reply, with all proceeds going toward the Ministry’s creative writing workshops. We created six monster personas, plus gu
- The Dots #12DaysOfGiving - discover a countdown of projects full of loveIn the lead up to the 25th of December, we decided to spotlight the kind of creativity that fills your heart, everyday on our Today page and across our social channels #12DaysOfGiving ✨26
- About the Ministry of StoriesYou’ll find us hidden behind our own fantastical shop Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.1
+ Show more
Work history
Skills
- Graphic Design
- Branding Design
- Photography
- Typography
- Editorial Design
- Copywriting
- Creative Direction
Education
C
C
(BA hons) Graphic DesignCentral Saint Martins College Of Art and Design
London, United Kingdom
Awards
Hoxton Street Monster Supplies – Postal ServicesD&AD
Wood Pencil – Writing for Design – Tone of VoiceHoxton Street Monster SuppliesD&AD
Graphite Pencil – Writing for Design+ Show more